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We have all heard the old adage, “If looks could kill” – coming from the angle of someone looking at you in a real mean, fierce way because they were mad at you or perturbed about something.  Well, we know that looks can’t kill a person, just as someone’s words alone can’t kill another person. 

Remember the saying “Sticks & stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”?  Believe me friends, words can hurt and wound someone in a deep way.  The power of words can make or break a person.  Words can shape the whole life of a child.  Because children just simply believe what is told them.  Children haven’t yet learned to disbelieve.  Sadly, disbelief has to be taught to a child.  They are just born trusting you and believing every word you say.

Words almost ruined my life naturally, and eternally.  I had things told me and spoken over me that took many years to have deprogrammed.  It took the word of God to wash my mind, memory, belief system, and thought pattern of all the trash…and yes, all the wounds as well. 

Luckily I had a wife that could see deeper than most, and she worked with me for many years to help me see the truth of what “normal” really is; and what “normal” really looks like.  As I wrote in the dedication of my book: “When most would have passed me by on the road to Jericho, she stopped, and took me into the inn of her heart…She believed in me, even when I failed to believe in myself.”

And I have a dear friend (a once in a lifetime friend) that came along side and over the course of 18 years has spoken into my life what “normal” is.  Doug – thanks for always being there me. I’m indebted to you.

One day as I was going through the greatest struggle in my life, Mary Ann and I were at the old ministry building taking communion together late at night.  And that day the Lord had showed her something about the Egyptians hotly pursuing the children of Israel, and how this was a type and shadow of the Egyptians (all my past, all the negative hurtful words spoken to me and over me, and my ridiculously low self-esteem) had been hotly pursuing me for many years.  But what was Moses’ response to the children of Israel when they saw them coming after them through the Red Sea? “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you today: for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see them again no more forever.”  Exodus 14:13

And that night (the darkest night of my life) Mary Ann ministered this truth to me over the cup and the bread.  And together we built an altar before the Lord; an altar of memorial that is still as fresh and alive in my heart and memory as the night it took place. 

The Egyptians have been drowned forever in my life…because in my thinking they have been drowned.  I will never see them again from that day until the end of time.  And friends, God has done the same thing to the Egyptians in your life!!  They have been dealt with and destroyed, you just have to see it and believe it. 

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7 KJV

This morning after devotions, I leaned back on the sofa and just meditated on the thought life of a Christian.  Did you know that the heart thinks?  Notice in the above verse it says, “As a man thinketh IN HIS HEART…”  So we know the heart thinks.  Also the Lord said one time, “Why do you think evil in your heart?”

But the mind also thinks and reasons and meditates.  The heart and mind work hand-in-hand.  The mind affects the heart.  We see this truth in Proverbs and in the gospels.  And the heart affects the spirit. There are four main elements of the mind: Thought, Learning, Understanding, and Imagination.  All of these are under your total control.  

Here’s the point…what you choose to meditate and think upon will affect you and your life (naturally and spiritually).  We are to be dwelling in His word and on His word.  The word of God tells us in Phillippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of a good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, THINK ON THESE THINGS.”

So then, what can we gather from this?  God is very concerned about what is on your mind.  Because what is on your mind is a reflection of who you are in your heart.  “As a man thinketh in his heart, SO IS HE.” 

If you’re putting filth, and carnal things, and worldly things in your mind then you will reap the harvest of whatsoever you have sown.  “Be not deceived, whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” The mind is the doorway to the spirit.  This is why the gatekeeper (the heart) has to be holy.  It will be the judge of what passes through and what doesn’t.  This is why it is written to “guard your heart.”

If the heart is not holy, then it is a compromised judge.  And who wants a compromised judge to sit on the bench?  No one!!  The word tells us, “we are not ignorant of satan’s devices.” This is actually translated wrong.  Look it up for yourself.  It should have been translated, “we are not ignorant of satan’s thoughts.”

This is his strategy brethren.  This is his technique.  He attacks you in the thought life.  He got to Eve through her mind!!!!!!  Look at the temptation very carefully; he did not attack her in her spirit, her flesh, or even her heart – he got to her through her mind.  Could this be why Peter (the Father actually) said to gird up the loins of your mind?

Yes, this is exactly why the Lord said this.  He knows the only way ole’ slew-foot can get to you is through your mind.  Friends, it all starts right here.  The educational billboards of the late 90s were true that said, “The mind is a powerful thing to waste.” 

But if you continue to fill it with filth, worldly television, novels, and movies; then how can you expect victory when you need it?  You can only get out of a computer whatever you’ve put in it. 

Lately, I’ve been meditating a lot on thoughts, the mind, the heart, imagination; and I have been amazed as to how much the word of God actually has to say about it.  Listen to Isaiah 55:7, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.”  So then, why is the man considered unrighteous in this verse?  Because of his thoughts!!  His thoughts are making him unrighteous.

Can you see this truth friend?  Whatever you think about, you will become.  Folks who think about porn become jaded and promiscuous, and eventually it will affect their natural life, as they will graduate to more and more perverted things…even rape and killing.  But it started in their minds.  They entertained certain thoughts and images, and then these grew into a life of their own…in their minds.  This is why the word talks about reprobate minds (Rom.1:28), vanity of the mind (Eph. 4:17), darkened minds (Eph. 4:18), blinded minds (2 Cor. 4:4), corrupt minds (1 Tim. 6:5).

It all begins right here, right now…in your mind.  Your mind is the battlefield.  You gain ground or you lose ground based upon a decision of your will to live holy, speak holy, think holy, and deny the selfish desires of the mind and flesh. 

You will be in a year from today (spiritually speaking) based upon what you have filled your mind with lately.  The harvest of the seeds sown always comes at a later date.  This is the architectural principle of all things in the kingdom of God that everything else is built upon…seedtime and harvest (Genesis 8:22).  Whatever you are sowing to your mind and heart today – you will reap the harvest of that at a later time.  Some folks’ harvest comes quickly.  Just as certain crops bring forth fruit quicker than others – and then others take much longer. 

But the harvest will come!!  No man works for a week’s wages not expecting a paycheck at the end of the week.  Payday always comes.  And we are forced to take the check of our labor.  Be very careful what you sow; for a man will always reap more than the mere seed that he sows.  What farmer plans a wheat seed expecting a single wheat seed back at harvest?  He expects a 200-fold return on his seed. 

The spiritual returns on the seeds of sin or self that we sow will be very abundant indeed.  But on the positive side…the seeds of prayer, righteous living, holy lifestyle, denial of the self-life, etc. will reap the sower eternal rewards in this life, and in the next.

Bottom line: whose thoughts are you heeding; and whose thoughts are you meditating on?  The choice is yours.  One time I had a vision with two angels taking me somewhere to see something.  I was shown lost souls descending into the pit.  I heard their screams, I saw them up close, I beheld the horror of their eternity without God.  But the one thing of the vision I’ll never forget is that I was able to see their minds.  Their minds were in the same place of their spiritual bodies that our natural brains are in our natural bodies.  And all their minds were darkened.  Their minds were actually a different color than their spiritual bodies.  They were naked souls with darkened minds.

God has warned us again and again throughout His word.  What will you do with His warnings?  Will you go the way of the majority in the wilderness…or will you take the narrow way? 

2 Corinthians 11:3, “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

2 Corinthians 10:5, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” (The ability to choose to cast down the wrong imaginations is yours).

Ephesians 4:22_23, “That you put off the former concerning the former conversation (your old manner of living and speech) the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

Give diligent thought to this teaching…please.